A letter from Katie Griffin serving in Argentina
March 2015 - Annual Ministry Update, 2014
MISSION PERSONNEL: Rev. Kathleen M. Griffin
COUNTRY: Argentina
MISSION PARTNER: Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos (ISEDET)
OVERALL GOAL:
ISEDET understands its objective to be one of theological education—practical formation and investigation destined for the university-level preparation of those persons who have consecrated themselves to the work of the Christian Church. In this light, ISEDET proposes to be a place that is open to critical creativity, reflection and investigation, and to new forms of theological thinking that respond to the needs of our time and of Latin America, where ISEDET has been called to contribute to the proclamation of the gospel. In its classrooms ISEDET strives to serve the universal Church and society and to form its academic community in an authentic discipleship of Jesus Christ. This theological education is characterized by ecumenism, a Protestant identity and a search for contextuality; it is committed to the continual renewal of and reflection about the Church.
Nota bene: The basic university-level degree in Argentina is the licenciature, which is generally considered to be a six-year degree program. In theology this includes four years of general course work in the theological disciplines, one year of specialized course work in one particular area (Biblical Studies, Systematic Theology, Practical Theology, Church History) and an investigation project that leads to the production of a 100-page thesis in the area of specialization.
1. Tell us about your mission partner and how they believe your mission work has impacted their ministry and the lives of the people they served this past year.
Throughout the year 2014 I have dedicated my time to completing my doctoral dissertation in church history at ISEDET, to guiding a licenciature student through the completion and defense of his thesis project, and to preparing for an interpretation assignment.
ISEDET has a long history of academic excellence in theological education, and for several decades it has been the only Protestant institute of theological education to offer a doctoral degree in theology in the five Southern Cone countries of South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay). As I defend my own dissertation I will not only be affirming the quality education that ISEDET’s professors can provide, but I will also be helping to continue that tradition through my own teaching and research in the future. In addition, ISEDET has long been trying to balance the male-female ratio within the teaching faculty—this has been a challenge because of the cultural and social difficulties Latina women must overcome in order to attain a doctoral-level education in theology. My presence as a woman on the faculty who can mentor future women pastors and theologians is invaluable.
2. Describe how an engaged congregation’s involvement and prayers enhance this ministry and what some of the other ways are that a church can be effective and supportive.
It is admittedly difficult to inspire local congregations in the United States to become excited about participating in the goal of theological education in other parts of the world. There are ways, however, in which members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can support the efforts and promotion of global theological education. ISEDET has a tremendous research library that could be a paradise for seminary professors who are looking for sabbatical research opportunities and who understand the importance of thinking globally as they seek to prepare future pastors for the PC(USA).
ISEDET could also serve in the theological preparation of seminary students from the U.S. as exchange students for a semester or a year. The academic excellence of ISEDET makes it an ideal place for Presbyterian seminary students to learn about biblical hermeneutics, theological constructions, the revisioning of church history, and the praxis of a contextualized practical theology from and in the Global South. Pastors of the PC(USA) who can learn from the experience of being an international exchange student would be excellent future leaders in the general mission of the PC(USA) both at home and abroad.
I have received correspondence from several individuals and congregations over the years that have assured me of their continued and constant prayers for me, my family, and the ministry of ISEDET. These prayers are fundamental to supporting our work. ISEDET has gone through a difficult period negotiating the accreditation of its degree programs with the Argentine National Ministry of Education. The problems that the Ministry of Education has pointed out have nothing to do with the academic quality of the institute, but rather with the organizational difficulties of the institute. ISEDET serves nine denominations with differing theological and organizational structures. This means that the Board of Directors, which must represent all nine of these churches, has a hard time agreeing on how to organize and administer the institute. ISEDET belongs to all, and thus to none. The Ministry of Education has not had a consistent, institutionally established dialogue partner with whom to negotiate.
Since ISEDET serves small minority religious groups in a nation that is officially Roman Catholic and that only recognizes one public Church, there is no way that one single Protestant denomination could have the organizational and financial strength to establish a theological institute on its own.
Your continued prayers are fundamental as the varied leadership at ISEDET struggles to consolidate its vision, mission and organizational structure in a way that can respond to the state’s Ministry of Education and thus guarantee the official accreditation of its degree programs.
As one of the graduates of ISEDET from the 1980s recently articulated on his Facebook page, he dedicated seven years of his life to obtain a university-level degree. He has not always been able to find a church that will extend him a call as a pastor, and his degree has no validity outside of the nine-member churches of ISEDET. Therefore he cannot claim his degree as valid in order to find work in other areas of community service with government organizations or with nongovernmental organizations. The official accreditation of the degrees that ISEDET offers is fundamental to the economic well-being of its graduates and to their Christian service in society at large.
3. Share a story about a life directly impacted and/or transformed by your ministry with our partner.
Although organizationally ISEDET serves nine historical Protestant denominations in the Southern Cone countries, students come to ISEDET from a large variety of Christian churches. A few years ago Zoila, a thesis student of mine from the Assemblies of God of Perú, wrote about the history of ministerial discrimination against women in the Assemblies of God in Argentina. Due to her continual concern about women in Pentecostal churches, she is now discovering that churches are not immune to widespread practices in a machista culture of sexual and domestic violence against women. She continues to work with pastors’ wives who have become personally aware of these practices in their churches.
Zoila is one example of how two of the critical global issues that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has identified as ministry priorities in God’s mission tie together: that of discipleship and reconciliation in a culture of violence, as one of my disciples and thesis students is now working to promote reconciliation and healing of women who have suffered from violence.
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Katie presenting her thesis student, Javier, before his thesis defense
4. Share how you are directly involved in preparing a leader who might succeed you in the future.
Another thesis student of mine defended a brilliant licenciature thesis in November 2014. Javier is a member of the Evangelical Waldensian Church of the River Plate—another one of the PC(USA)’s ecumenical partners in the region. His work was a project in oral history, examining the diverse reactions of the Waldensian churches in Uruguay to the onset of the last military dictatorship in Uruguay in the late 1960s and early ’70s. This is a question of state violence that continues to divide churches in the region, and Javier’s work is another example of one of my students who has taken seriously the need to work for reconciliation in a culture of violence.
In addition to his licenciature work in theology at ISEDET Javier is also preparing a professorate in social history at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay. His hope and dream is to eventually complete a doctoral degree in Church History.
I have just begun the process of guiding a new thesis student in Church History. Aymará is also a member of the Waldensian Church, and her work will focus on the processes that led this denomination to approve the consecration of women to pastoral ministry during a period in which the entire Southern Cone region was beset with militarized dictatorships and state violence against the countries’ own citizens. Aymará also has a university degree in Library Studies, specializing in historical archives. Her combined work as a church historian and an archivist is absolutely critical to helping churches, pastors and investigators rediscover the wealth of their contributions to the history of the proclamation of the Reign of God in South America.
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The Fratea Griffin family
5. Help us to understand how we can continue to be in prayer for you, your family, our mission partner, and the people of God.
Continue to pray for ISEDET as it continues to negotiate with the Argentine Ministry of Education to secure the accreditation of its degree programs in the future.
Personally, pray for my children as they move to a new culture and adapt to a new school system as we spend a year on interpretation assignment in the United States.
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 46
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